Mental illness and chemical abuse are leading factors of youth incarceration and homelessness.

 

In late 2017, Northwest Youth Services received a three-year funding commitment from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to launch a collaborative partnership between a variety of local community-based agencies to provide behavioral health services to youth and young adults in crisis. 

The role of our Behavioral Health team is to enhance and expand mental health and treatment services to youth and young adults experiencing chronic homelessness, tackling substance use disorders, suffering from serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance, or those facing a combination of these serious conditions.
 
The Behavioral Health team works across all of our program areas to ensure that the youth and young adults we serve have their needs met from a holistic, client-centered approach. This approach is called the Whole Person Care Approach.

The Whole Person Approach is based on a set of core values that focuses on developing a fruitful quality of life for the young person, regardless of age or life circumstances. 

The goal of Northwest Youth Services’ Behavioral Health team is to cultivate and create conditions where youth have the necessary systems to grow and flourish. We do this through a collaborative model that includes youth, staff, and community partnerships that foster educational, physical, emotional, and psycho-social development, and that promote resiliency.